The ballot for the 2026 TCS London Marathon has been drawn and over 1,000,000 people received the ‘sorry you didn’t get in’ email. If you didn’t get into the London Marathon ballot, then what are you options?
From running for charity to looking for an alternative marathon, here’s what you can do.
Here’s how Sarah got on at the 2024 London Marathon
RUN THE LONDON MARATHON FOR CHARITY
London is the world’s most colourful marathon, with most of those colours coming from the tens of thousands of runners wearing tops to show the charity they’re supporting. Running the London Marathon for charity is the best way to get into the race.
Year-after-year the London Marathon is the world’s biggest one day fundraising event – in 2025 runners collectively raised over £75 million! Being part of that is a special experience for any runner.
If you’d like to run for a charity then you need to apply directly with the charity of your choice, often explaining your reasons why you’d like to run for that cause, and detailing how you plan on fundraising. Find details on running London Marathon for charity here, and here’s a full A-Z list of all the charities with London Marathon places (for these you’ll need to go to the charity’s website to find out more).
Charities have a minimum fundraising commitment of at least £2,500, and often more.
RUN THE LONDON MARATHON WITH A GOOD FOR AGE TIME
Are you a faster runner in your age group? If so, there are 6,000 places available as ‘Good For Age’ at the London Marathon, split between age groups and male and female runners on a fastest first basis within each age and gender category.
Details of London Marathon Good For Age entry can be found here. The qualifying window for Good For Age runners at the 2026 race is 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025.
You are able to apply for a GFA place from October, but know that achieving your time doesn’t guarantee you entry – in previous years you’ve had to run more than five minutes faster than the qualifying time.
For those runners who change age brackets over the qualifying window and race day: your qualifying time is based on how old you were when you ran your time, not on the day of the London Marathon.
RUN THE LONDON MARATHON WITH A CHAMPIONSHIP PLACE
If you’re a really fast runner, then there are guaranteed championship places to start the London Marathon for men who’ve run under 2:38 and women who’ve run under 3:10. You have to be a member of a UK Athletics running club and run the race in your club colours.
Championship entry into the London Marathon opens later in 2025, with a qualifying window of 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. As of 2026’s race, it’s fastest-first capped at 500 men and 500 women, with all runners unsuccessful in the championship application moving to Good For Age entries.
RUN THE LONDON MARATHON VIA YOUR RUNNING CLUB
Running clubs in the UK may be allocated up to two places in the London Marathon depending on the number of runners they have registered. There may be a chance that your club has a space and maybe you’ll be the runner selected. Speak to your running club to see if they have an entry and how they plan on allocating it.
RUN THE LONDON MARATHON VIRTUALLY
Sure, you might not be running from Greenwich to The Mall, but you can sign up to run the Virtual London Marathon on the same day as the race, running it wherever and however you want and starting whenever you like. The London Marathon MyWay virtual entries are open here.
You still get a medal and a t-shirt (if you want one) for completing the race virtually.
RUN THE REVERSE LONDON MARATHON
This is not an official event, and it’s not necessarily something we’re telling you to do, but every year there are many runners who take on the reverse London Marathon.
The idea is to run the full London Marathon course in reverse, starting very early on marathon morning from The Mall (around 4am depending on how fast you run) and following the course to Greenwich, arriving before the masses set off. Many of the roads are either quiet or closed, or you can run on the pavement where necessary.
VOLUNTEER AT THE LONDON MARATHON
If you can’t run the race then you can still be involved by volunteering at the London Marathon. Thousands of people volunteer each year and have many different roles from being at the Expo to being out on the course or handing out medals at the finish. You can register to become a volunteer and hear about the different positions available.
ALTERNATIVE MARATHONS IN APRIL
Spring is the most popular time for people to run marathons in the UK, and if you’re part of a running club or attend regular running groups, then it can feel like everyone is running a marathon in April or May. If you want to be part of that, then there are other choices for popular road marathon.
Brighton Marathon is organised by London Marathon Events and it’s a great route around the seaside town, often running alongside the sea, and the whole event is really well supported for the 20,000 runners. Next date: Sunday 12 April 2026.
Newport Marathon is a well-regarded and fast course in Wales, perfect for both PB-chasers and first-timers. The crowds aren’t as big as Brighton or Manchester, but a lot of runners really enjoy this course. Next date: Sunday 19 April 2026.
Manchester Marathon is the UK’s second-largest marathon with over 30,000 runners. It’s proven to be a popular course with great PB-potential. But places fill up very quickly for the race (running Manchester Marathon for charity may be a good option). Next date: Sunday 19 April 2026.
If you fancy running overseas, then there are lots of choices in April including the Paris Marathon, which is one of the world’s largest races and very popular (12 April 2026), Milan Marathon (12 April 2026), Vienna Marathon (19 April 2026), Rotterdam Marathon (12 April 2026) and Hamburg Marathon (26 April 2026).
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All images from London Marathon Events
